butterfly
by ElasticBobaTurtle
Summary: It was all he could do to catch those little strings of time. Green/Leaf. Gameverse.


note: Set in the FRLG gameverse, not the Pokespe mangaverse.

* * *

Whenever she came, he always felt –

_Irritated. Peevish. Foul-tempered. _At least, that was the face he put on whenever she visited on those rare (too rare) occasions. Leaf, being Leaf, was always happy to point this out.

"You still look like you're perpetually constipated, Oak." She would wag a finger at him, other hand on her hip. "Didn't Daisy tell you to eat your vegetables?"

His scowl would deepen as he tried to shoo her off.

"I'm busy," he would say. "Go away."

She would quirk an eyebrow at the conspicuously empty gym. "Busy?"

He would curse his luck for not having any challengers that day. "Yes, _busy! _Now why don't you go bother someone else?"

She would roll her eyes and start to walk off, and a curious ache would develop in his chest.

But she would stop halfway to the exit; and he would listen to her footsteps with a pounding heart as she turned around and made her way back to him; and his stomach would fill with this absurd, tangly feeling, like a mess of drunken butterflies smashing every which way into one another; and his palms would grow sweaty for absolutely no reason at all.

And then she would say:

"Come on, Oak, you're not fooling anyone. If this is your idea of a party, well—I've got some things to show you."

And she would grasp his (ugh, _why?_) sweaty hand in her own small, soft one and lead him off to a "good time."

* * *

"You never seem too happy to see me when I visit," she mused aloud one day after she had dragged him out of the gym. They sat on a bench in a park, watching children play in the sun's setting rays.

Green snorted gracefully. "Is there a reason I should be?"

Leaf sighed and stretched her arms out, stifling a yawn. "I guess not. But isn't it polite to at least _feign_ excitement?"

"To hell with that. Sorry Leaf, but chivalry's been dead for a long time."

"Fine. But," Leaf eyed him slyly, "Shouldn't you at least acknowledge the one who beat you?"

Green growled, brow twitching. "That was-"

"Yes, I caught you on a bad day, I know," she finished. "Lucky me."

She smirked at him, and Green could do nothing but huff (_not_ pout, because that was girly) and firmly avoid her gaze. Instead, he fixed his attention on two children in front of them, a boy and a girl. It appeared as though they were attempting to build a crude hut out of pebbles and sticks.

Leaf followed his gaze. A small smile settled on her lips as she watched them struggling to keep the "house" from falling over. Unfortunately, their chubby, poorly coordinated hands were unsuited for such precise handiwork, and the structure collapsed. The boy started to cry, while the girl patted him soothingly on the back.

"How cute," Leaf remarked.

"Yeah, a fine bunch of architects."

Leaf giggled. "As if you could do any better."

Green narrowed his eyes. "Is that a challenge?"

Leaf smiled serenely back. "Only if you want it to be."

He settled for a dismissive sort of grunt. He wasn't going to be caught _building_ _twig huts_, of all things, in public. Especially not with her. He ignored the irrational, utterly ridiculous thought that flashed briefly through his mind: _if not with her, then with who?_ (Red certainly wasn't the twig-hut type, and his Grandfather was too busy-)

Green furiously shook the absurd train of thought from his mind, marginally horrified at himself. What was he _thinking_? It wasn't as though he was harboring some burning desire to build stick huts to serve as an emotional outlet for his suppressed inner child...right? Of course not. He was a dignified, mature adult of eighteen – and on top of that, the revered gym leader of Viridian City! He had a reputation to maintain.

He blinked back to his surroundings, only to notice that Leaf was watching his face with a look of amusement. "A penny for your thoughts?" She grinned crookedly at him.

He scoffed. "My thoughts aren't that cheap."

Leaf shrugged and sighed. "It was worth a shot."

She closed her eyes and reclined far back on the bench so that the sun's rays kissed the bridge of her nose, her cheekbones, her lashes; lighted strands of her hair orange. He swallowed and looked away.

She was silent for a while, and he sat there, soaking in the silence. It was warm, honey-colored. A pleasant warmth radiated from the bench and through to his legs, up his torso, to the tips of his ears, till they tingled. The children were rebuilding their house. He watched them work, chattering happily to one another, stacking wobbling sticks together, holding their breaths in childish anticipation as they watched their small, shared fantasy unfold.

"See? They're pretty good after all."

Leaf's voice startled him. He glanced at her, was again taken aback by the way the light framed her, filled her eyes. He looked quickly back to the stick hut, his face strangely hot (most _certainly_ an effect of the sunlight). And it was true – their home stood. Not the most sound of structures, but standing nonetheless.

The parents came to collect the children, who separated with no small amount of wailing.

"You'd think they were getting their teeth pulled out or something," Green commented wryly.

Leaf smiled. "Well, separation can be painful...even if it's only temporary."

Green's head snapped in her direction, but her eyes were closed and the light blotted out her expression. His heart was racing, though he couldn't comprehend _why_. He swallowed, clenched his hands at his sides, stared hard at the children's quivering hut.

"You know what, Green?" His head swam at the sound of her voice.

He heard himself reply faintly, as if in a dream."What, Leaf?"

"I'm happy. Are you?" Even her voice sounded dreamy.

"No." It tumbled out of his mouth, dropping out like a pebble before he could catch it. He blinked, shocked at his own answer. "I mean, uh, wait—yes?" He quickly tried to repair his slip.

But Leaf was already pinning him with dizzying brown eyes. The dreamy haze had dissipated, sharpened into the focus of her intense gaze. "Green..."

Her voice was serious, concerned. He hated the tone of it. He felt her hand come to rest lightly on his shoulder, and the place where it rested was hot, radiated heat, as though someone had placed a tea kettle there. He felt the sweat gathering in his palms again (_damn it)_.

He turned his head away from her, feeling faintly defiant. Her grip on his shoulder tightened, the heat intensifying. "Green, look at me."

When he continued to avoid her gaze, he felt her fingers take a hold of his chin, forcing him to look directly into her eyes. The sensation of her fingers under his chin was so foreign that he could barely think.

"What's the matter?" she asked, softly. God, he felt for all the world like a petulant child.

He gritted his teeth. "_Nothing_. _Nothing_ is the matter. I'm happy, okay?" He used his own sweating hands to roughly remove her fingers. "Just—leave me alone."

Leaf's hand hovered momentarily in mid-air, then returned to her side. She almost looked like his mother, wearing that sort of expression. "Green, I'm serious. Tell me what's wrong. I'm here."

That did it.

"No, you're _not!_" he exploded without thinking. He blinked at how forcefully the words had come out; promptly clamped his mouth shut. _Damn_ it. Now he sounded even more like a child throwing a tantrum. What was _wrong_ with him?

He shut his eyes and ground his teeth. She was probably laughing at him. Well, she could laugh all she wanted to – he didn't care anymore.

Because he had said it, though not at all the way he had wanted to; though he had never intended to in the first place. He realized, quite suddenly, that this was what he had wanted to tell her all along. The reason why he was annoyed when she visited, all fresh-faced and wind-blown and full of life. The reason he hid his face when she came, tried to shield himself from those smiles that were so full without him.

_She _wasn't_ there. Not when he woke up each morning to the bleary gray light; not when the trainers came and he mowed them over in bland, one-hit one-kill matches; not when he swallowed his cold lunches or his lukewarm TV dinners; not when he sat alone in his living room at night, not wanting to turn on the television but switching it on anyway, just to have some sort of noise, a bit of digitized, pixel chatter to fill the void._

There was a long silence. Green opened his eyes and ventured a peek at Leaf's face. Her eyes were still trained unwaveringly on him, and he shifted away uncomfortably.

Under his breath, he muttered, "Can you just—leave me alone right now?"

He was hoping, praying, nearly pleading to God that she would listen. All he wanted to do right now was find a corner and shrivel up in a ball of mortified misery.

(But, of course, she would say-)

"No," Leaf stated firmly. "I'm not leaving."

And he nearly laughed at the irony of her statement, because-

"Don't lie, Leaf," he spat, a little more harshly than he intended. "You always leave."

(She would be leading him with her soft, small hand; and then he would blink, barely catching the last glimpse of her red skirt as she traipsed out the door, off to greet another grand adventure. It was all he could do to catch wisps of those twenty-four hours, little strings of time that might bind her, like a flapping kite, to him.)

_What was he _saying_? He sounded like some clingy lovesick boy, whining about being left behind, and he really needed to stop this before- _

His inner tirade halted abruptly at the warm and gentle touch of her fingers. They ghosted over his face, wound around his neck, brought his face to her bosom. She hugged him close, and all Green could think was: _warm, cinnamon, home, and _Leaf_. _

Leaf.

The over-riding thought.

_Leaf._

"I'm here," she whispered into his ear, stroking slow circles around the whorls of his hair. "I'm here."

And he nearly, nearly wanted to cry, then, because at that moment everything in his world was so full of Leaf. Her scent, her hair, her touch, her, her, her, and she...

She was here.

* * *

I imagine that both Green (rival) and Leaf have different personalities and a much different dynamic than Green and Blue did in the manga, and I find myself actually gravitating more towards the game relationship as opposed to the manga one. Can't be certain if they are accurate or totally off or whatever - but this is how I felt they were. Green strikes me as a more immature, insecure personality, while Leaf gives me the impression of an independent, wandering sort of spirit. Heavily influenced by a GreenLeaf fic I read on LJ by wanderlark: .

(Anyways, I'm just happy because for once when I was writing, they felt _natural_ as opposed to grossly cliche and icky...(like when I tried to write them as Blue and Green from the manga). Ahur.


End file.
